New Zealand is accepting of the defeat from schoolboy-like All Blacks
Admittedly, the All Blacks weren’t eliminated from the Rugby World Cup.
And, who’s to say they definitely will be?
After all, where there’s life, there’s hope. So, at least at this stage, we can’t say New Zealand won’t be left as the last team standing in France.
But I have to say I thought their tournament-opening defeat to France was pretty instructive.
I’ve been watching Rugby World Cups since 1987, when I was 12-years-old.
Now, New Zealand’s never been defeated at this point in the competition. When they have lost World Cup matches, they’ve been knocked out.
That’s been the cue for a hue and cry that’s been pretty savage on occasions. So, yes, we can look upon Saturday’s 27-13 loss to France and say it was no big deal. It
wasn’t campaign-ending and that all the eggs are still in the quarterfinal basket.
France was always a 50-50 proposition and we now have to sit through a few pointless pool match exercises until the All Blacks meet South Africa or Ireland in the last eight.
Lose that game and maybe then we’ll get a more visceral reaction from fans and media. But I won’t be surprised if we do.
I think under coach Ian Foster’s tenure we’ve become accustomed to defeat. We don’t necessarily accept it, but we expect it.
Hence the shrugs of shoulders I’ve had from people at work, the golf club, kids’ sport and social gatherings in recent days.
We are sadly, it appears, increasingly conditioned to failure.
As I watched the All Blacks play France, I wasn’t focused on the result. I simply wanted to see some effort. For the team not to roll over and play dead as soon as things got a bit difficult.
To me, that’s how badly this empire has crumbled.
I’ve seen lots of schoolboy rugby in my time. Plenty of teams who look very efficient when they’re on the front foot, but panic when they’re not.
That’s understandable. They’re boys, after all. You can’t put old heads on young shoulders.
So what’s the All Blacks’ excuse?
This is why I’ve been so critical of Foster for so long.
I saw him talk - yet again - about lessons and hard truths after Saturday’s loss. Well, the losses are mounting under his stewardship and nothing appears to have been learnt from any of them.
Schoolboys aren’t full-time. They don’t have an army of allegedly elite coaches at their disposal and unlimited resources.
Sure, there’s some video analysis and various meetings, but at a very rudimentary level compared to the All Blacks.
If the All Blacks are coached, you wouldn’t know it at times. If they have any game plans, they’re not obvious.
No, as time ticked away at Stade de France, our All Blacks played with all the clarity and aplomb of an average 1st XV.
Kick after kick after kick, neither for territory, nor with any great hope of being regathered either. Just giving the ball away because you don’t know what else to do.
All those training sessions, all those meetings, all those “lessons’’ that the coach continually talks about and the team serves up that?
It makes you wonder what they do all day.
But, hey, they’re still in the tournament, still talking about hard truths and still trying to give us the impression that there’s some method to this madness.
There’s a rugby team in there somewhere, it’s just that it might take Scott Robertson to find it.
In the meantime, the Rugby World Cup remains up for grabs. It’s just that, from a New Zealand point of view, I think we’d all be shocked if the All Blacks actually won it.
It’s the defeats we’re better-prepared for these days.
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> It would be best described as an elegant solution to what was potentially going to be a significant problem for new All Blacks coach Scott Robertson. It is a problem the mad population of New Zealand will have to cope with more and more as All Blacks are able to continue their careers in NZ post RWCs. It will not be a problem for coaches, who are always going to start a campaign with the captain for the next WC in mind. > Cane, despite his warrior spirit, his undoubted commitment to every team he played for and unforgettable heroics against Ireland in last year’s World Cup quarter-final, was never unanimously admired or respected within New Zealand while he was in the role. Neither was McCaw, he was considered far too passive a captain and then out of form until his last world cup where everyone opinions changed, just like they would have if Cane had won the WC. > It was never easy to see where Cane, or even if, he would fit into Robertson’s squad given the new coach will want to be building a new-look team with 2027 in mind. > Cane will win his selections on merit and come the end of the year, he’ll sign off, he hopes, with 100 caps and maybe even, at last, universal public appreciation for what was a special career. No, he won’t. Those returning from Japan have already earned the right to retain their jersey, it’s in their contract. Cane would have been playing against England if he was ready, and found it very hard to keep his place. Perform, and they keep it however. Very easy to see where Cane could have fit, very hard to see how he could have accomplished it choosing this year as his sabbatical instead of 2025, and that’s how it played out (though I assume we now know what when NZR said they were allowing him to move his sabbatical forward and return to NZ next year, they had actually agreed to simply select him for the All Blacks from overseas, without any chance he was going to play in NZ again). With a mammoth season of 15 All Black games they might as well get some value out of his years contract, though even with him being of equal character to Richie, I don’t think they should guarantee him his 100 caps. That’s not what the All Blacks should be about. He absolutely has to play winning football.
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